Chocolate in the Belgian Venice

We had been told by various well-traveled friends and family that Brugge, Belgium was a not-to-be-missed destination. We decided to get up early on Saturday and take a drive up to see the town.

Brugge is in northwest Belgium and is particularly known for the canals that run through it – often compared to Venice. Belgium has 3 official languages – French, Flemish and German. Flemish is a close cousin to Dutch and is, not surprisingly, in the North, where Belgium borders with The Netherlands. Equally, French is spoken in the South, where Belgium borders France. (The German is a hangover for one or two small cities that I haven’t found yet.)

Brugge is probably Belgium’s most visited city, and after our visit, I can understand why. Apparently, the canals are a result of persistent floods in medieval times that began carving out channels and waterways. These waterways were then used over time to provide prosperity through trade, particularly for the textile industry.

Brugge was “discovered” as a fantastic place to visit in the early 19th century by those traveling through to get to the Waterloo battlefield. Thankfully, Brugge was spared the bombing destruction of World War II, so it retains its lovely character and old world charm.


D and I had the blessing of another fantastic day (weather wise, but also in general). We started our day in the heart of town. The bell tower – the Belfort – in Brugge was built in the 13th century and is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List (I need to look that up because we keep seeing that distinction but really don’t know what it means. It has to be good because it is highlighted in all the tour books.)


The sky was filled with big beautiful fluffy clouds that were moving at quite a pace, there was a bit of wind, but it was sunny and fabulous. We decided to climb to the top of the tower before the weather changed its mind so that we could enjoy a brilliant view of the city and surrounding area.

The guidebook (generously lent to us by new friends in Mons, thank you!) said that the “366 steps to the top are an exhausting and unusually tight squeeze but are well worth it.” They were right. There are easily 4 different ages and materials visible in the construction of the steps – all a circular staircase – that becomes progressively narrower the higher you climb. Oh, yes, and there isn’t a rail to hold onto nor is there a separate exit staircase. So, on top of there being a lot of stairs, you have tourists trying to pass each other on exceptionally uneven and narrow steps. It was an adventure getting to the top. They did have a couple of platforms before the very top that allowed rest and congestion relief. (As D said, and I agree, this is a self-selecting attraction. Those with heart conditions or other ailments would take one look and opt-out. Presumably they count on this to keep numbers down.)

The top was actually open with only a grate to prevent people from falling/jumping out. The gale-force winds blowing through felt fantastic after the medival stairmaster. The view was phenomenal. We enjoyed our view, but did get quite hungry from the work to get to the top, so we decided it was time for lunch.


We negotiated our way down and found a nice restaurant with an outdoor terrace on the main square and actually just enjoyed watching the clouds sweep by with the view of the tower in front. It captivated both D and me. I tried to take some pictures but they don’t do the view justice. It was quite peaceful and beautiful.

On a friend’s recommendation, we wanted to take the walking tour of the city. The canals and bridges have a charm and I think Aunt Beth said it best when she called it a “warm fuzzy feeling.” You can’t help but be charmed by the city. We were taking pictures around every corner because it was just so quaint and picturesque. Again, pictures don’t capture the “vibe” of the city.

We decided to stop into the Chocolate Museum to better understand why Belgium is the premier chocolate manufacturer (as we have been told). Again, I was less than impressed with the crowd control (read here “lack thereof”) but it really was fascinating to learn the history and what work goes into a good bar of chocolate. I especially appreciated the video that showed the process starting from the harvesting of the cocoa beans and taking us through all the way to the making of the “base” chocolate. This base is what all the shops in Belgium purchase as their raw material to then make all different kind of ganaches and wonderful treats that we buy in the finished form in their specialty shops.


But, my FAVORITE part of the Choco-Story (as the museum was called) was the live demonstration. The man pictured in our tour book was the same man who did our demo (clearly he has worked at the museum for awhile now) and that made it seem cooler to me – a chocolate celebrity! He was a wealth of information about what temperature the molds have to be versus the temperature of the chocolate. Then, of course, we got to eat what he made. The info tid-bit that sticks out most is that the reason Belgian chocolate is better than other countries’ (Swiss or German) is that the Belgians 1. use better cocoa beans, as well as more cocoa bean and butter versus additives, but 2. their methods are what makes it special. I don’t know how they discovered this, but they figured out that if you grind the cocoa bean to a certain measure of fine-ness, the human tongue will not be able to detect the grit, giving it a smoothness that other chocolate does not have. I can’t verify the truth to this, but it does taste good. We are diligently testing different chocolates on a regular basis so that we may report our findings. So far, Belgian chocolate is very smooth.

I was a bit tired and a touch cranky at this point in the day – a lot of activity and sometimes I just need to stop and eat something. Thankfully, God blessed me with a husband who recognized the tell-tale signs and quickly got me to a café and bought me a hot chocolate and pastry treat. The presentation was fantastic. The milk was super hot, but the chocolate and sugar were served in separate bowls so that I could make it to my exact desire of sweetness and chocolaty-ness. I naturally dumped it all in. Yummy. (D chose the pastry named Miserables – I will leave that for you to translate. He has a bit of a cheeky sense of humor.)


We finished the day by going to a begijnhof. This is basically a small town within the city, walled off from the rest, that began in the 13th century. It was started by a Catholic order of unmarried women (named the Begijnen, hof simply means town, so hence the name) or widowed women. The Crusades had made the male-female ratio skewed, so, with little prospect of marriage and therefore little future hope, women would join these orders and would adhere to vows of obedience and chastity but not poverty. They supported themselves through making lace or textiles and dedicated themselves to caring for the poor and elderly. I love this bit of history and had to visit it. Most of the orders are gone now but this one in Brugge is inhabited by a nunnery and had the look and feel of how it may have been back then. It was peaceful, beautiful, and serene.


We loved Brugge.  There were crowds but that still didn’t detract from the charm. I really hope we go back.